The second-to-last Delta II rocket lit up the night over California’s Vandenberg Air Force Base in the early hours on Saturday, taking to the skies with the JPSS-1 Weather Satellite for NASA and NOAA, set to become America’s primary meteorological spacecraft in Polar Orbit.

The penultimate Delta II rocket lifted off from SLC-2W at California’s Vandenberg Air Force Base on Saturday, November 18, 2017 at 9:47:36 UTC with the first satellite in the Joint Polar Satellite System

The penultimate Delta II rocket lifted off from SLC-2W at California’s Vandenberg Air Force Base on Saturday, November 18, 2017 at 9:47:36 UTC with the first satellite in the Joint Polar Satellite System.

ULA’s Delta II rocket was forced to abandon a nighttime launch attempt from California in the early hours on Tuesday due to a technical issue with the rocket’s second stage engine actuator as well as a fouled range with boasts in the offshore hazard area where the vehicle’s ground-lit boosters were expected to impact.

The penultimate Delta II rocket stands ready for an early morning liftoff from California’s Vandenberg Air Force Base on Tuesday with the first operational satellite of the Joint Polar Satellite System, the next generation of low-orbiting weather satellites operated by NASA and NOAA.

The JPSS-1 weather satellite was installed atop its Delta II launch vehicle on October 24, 2017 for final integrated testing ahead of a November 2017 liftoff to relieve the Suomi NPP satellite and become the primary polar-orbiting weather asset of NOAA and the U.S. National Weather Service.

The penultimate Delta II launch vehicle undergoes assembly at Space Launch Complex 2W at Vandenberg Air Force Base through the spring and summer 2016 for the launch of the first satellite in the Joint Polar Satellite System

Components for the Delta II rocket slated to launch the first satellite in the Joint Polar Satellite System are delivered to Vandenberg Air Force Base for final acceptance tests before rolling out for stacking

The first satellite of NASA & NOAA’s Joint Polar Satellite System is assembled by Ball Aerospace and integrated with five meteorological instruments to collect data for operational weather forecasting and climate science.